There! I did it! Are you happy NOW?!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
note to self: Don't Be a Stranger.
...which is exactly what I've been to this blog as of late. Not sure why, exactly, except that I have a sneaking suspicion that a touch of PPD might have been involved. Nothing truly incapacitating, but just enough for me to withdraw for a little while. Truly, everything is fine...more than fine, in fact. And busy. Very, very busy, especially throughout December.
My colleague Lisa has been on maternity leave since the birth of her boys, Ben and Jake, in mid-July. She took extra time off at no pay, which was completely worth it for a choice mom of twins. Her long-term sub at our school had been here since school began in August, but unfortunately was abruptly fired two weeks before the start of Christmas break. An asinine accusation by a disgruntled seventh grade student that she hit him in anger. I don't buy it, but whatever. Lisa teaches half of the seventh grade at our school (language arts), and I teach the other half, so it was left to me to put together all of the lesson plans for her daily subs for those two weeks, plus grading their work. Her students plus my students equals 240 kids. I was a tad overwhelmed, to put it mildly. But I got through it--with my sanity relatively intact--and K and I had a delicious Christmas with my parents back in upstate New York.
Traveling was interesting, to say the least. On our way out to New York, we were delayed at O'Hare for an extra five hours. K was absolutely amazing...she stayed upbeat, relaxed and happy throughout the entire 13-hour day, and we received compliments after every flight by the passengers who had been sitting nearby that she was "such a good baby!" At one point on one of the airplanes we flew on, another toddler was having such a hard time and was so distressed, that my mama heart reacted instinctively and brought me to tears for another woman's baby. Amazing...I didn't expect that at all. K doesn't get that upset very often, so I'm just not used to hearing that level of distress. Of course, the amount of stress I had been under during the last two weeks of school before break was probably a factor, too.
On the way back on New Year's Eve, we had to fly standby almost the entire way. The ticketing agents in Syracuse didn't issue me a boarding pass for K, but instead handwrote "+ infant" on my boarding pass. I should have known better, but instead I just hopped on the plane for Philadelphia and assumed it would all work out. Once we arrived at the Philly airport, we were told that I had to return to ticketing to get a new boarding pass for K, which involved finding an entirely different terminal, waiting in endless lines, and going through security yet again. We ended up missing our flight to Chicago by ten minutes. Luckily, we were able to catch another flight to Chicago only a couple of hours later and fly standby, and we were also put on a list to fly standby from Chicago back to Colorado. What really stunk, in addition to the extra waiting around and the uncertainty of getting a seat on the next two planes, was the fact that they would be charging me an additional $50 to fly standby, and it wasn't really my fault in the first place. But again, we soldiered through and arrived back in Colorado around 9:15 pm. After my aunt and uncle picked us up and brought us to my car which was parked at my grandmother's condo, we finally got back home by 11 pm on New Year's Eve, just in time for me to wish K a happy new year. It was an incredibly icy drive home due to the ice storm the previous day, but I drove as fast as I dared (which was veeeery slowly) and we got home safely. Mom thinks I should petition the airline for a refund of my $50, but I haven't decided yet. I started back to work on Monday, kids returned on Wednesday, and not surprisingly they are NOT happy to be back at school after Christmas break. Nope, not happy at all. But we survived the rest of the week, and now I get to spend what will hopefully be a lovely weekend with my best girl.
My Resolutions for 2011.
1. Build up an arsenal of babysitters that I can call as needed. And pay. Friends have offered to babysit and have stayed with K, but I'm finding that I almost prefer to pay someone because then I don't feel like I "owe" that person for doing me a favor.
2. Find other choice moms in my area and form a group. Or join an already-existing group. K needs to meet other little ones with similarly unique family stories, and I need to be able to compare notes on the "daddy issue" when it eventually comes up. I'm just trying to figure out how to put it into words once K is old enough to start to understand it.
3. Lose 30 pounds.
4. Build up my savings. For emergencies, and also to possibly prepare for #2 next fall.
5. Find a way to become more self-confident in terms of my appearance and my "new" identity as a mom. Not sure how to achieve this one, but I definitely plan to work on it somehow. More to come on this later.
That's it, for a start. I know there are more, but those are the biggies so far. I feel that it goes without saying that I want to be the best mom I can be to K, and to help her grow, learn, and thrive. She's doing so well so far...I love the fact that she seems to feel secure in our relationship and family structure. She is SUCH a happy kid! She is constantly smiling at me with her toothy grin (two teeth so far!) and laughing when we're goofy together, giggling when I tickle her under her chin, and so playful with her toys and with me. I love the way she plays with my fingers, especially when she's enjoying her before-bed bottle, and she's so inquisitive, almost to a fault. Once she becomes mobile, I think I'm in for it. She's busy scooting 360 degrees, and she can pretty much get where she wants to go, though crawling will be that much more efficient once she figures it out. She's got amazing fine motor skills, and I'm not surprised that her gross motor skills are developing more slowly, considering that it took her a little longer than most to sit independently. But she'll get it eventually. She loves to stand with a little help, she loves to bounce, and she just started trying to pull up on furniture (and people) at the end of December. I am completely in love with her personality, especially her emerging sense of humor and the way she babbles and holds cooing conversations with me. My favorite by far, though, is "mamamamama"...music to my ears.
We were in New York at my parents' house when the above picture was taken, and she looks like such the sad little inmate! So resigned to her fate stuck in the crib! That crib was used for all three of us kids, and has held up remarkably well over the years.
The highchair in the above picture has an interesting history, as well: the three of us kids AND before us, my mom and her two younger sisters used it, too! Mom was born in '41, so it really dates back. Mom painted it in the early '70's (can'tcha tell from the colors?!), and it's really stood the test of time.
"Yay! Ribbons!!"
"What's in there? I see something!!"
What, you didn't get what you asked for from Santa? :)
My colleague Lisa has been on maternity leave since the birth of her boys, Ben and Jake, in mid-July. She took extra time off at no pay, which was completely worth it for a choice mom of twins. Her long-term sub at our school had been here since school began in August, but unfortunately was abruptly fired two weeks before the start of Christmas break. An asinine accusation by a disgruntled seventh grade student that she hit him in anger. I don't buy it, but whatever. Lisa teaches half of the seventh grade at our school (language arts), and I teach the other half, so it was left to me to put together all of the lesson plans for her daily subs for those two weeks, plus grading their work. Her students plus my students equals 240 kids. I was a tad overwhelmed, to put it mildly. But I got through it--with my sanity relatively intact--and K and I had a delicious Christmas with my parents back in upstate New York.
Traveling was interesting, to say the least. On our way out to New York, we were delayed at O'Hare for an extra five hours. K was absolutely amazing...she stayed upbeat, relaxed and happy throughout the entire 13-hour day, and we received compliments after every flight by the passengers who had been sitting nearby that she was "such a good baby!" At one point on one of the airplanes we flew on, another toddler was having such a hard time and was so distressed, that my mama heart reacted instinctively and brought me to tears for another woman's baby. Amazing...I didn't expect that at all. K doesn't get that upset very often, so I'm just not used to hearing that level of distress. Of course, the amount of stress I had been under during the last two weeks of school before break was probably a factor, too.
On the way back on New Year's Eve, we had to fly standby almost the entire way. The ticketing agents in Syracuse didn't issue me a boarding pass for K, but instead handwrote "+ infant" on my boarding pass. I should have known better, but instead I just hopped on the plane for Philadelphia and assumed it would all work out. Once we arrived at the Philly airport, we were told that I had to return to ticketing to get a new boarding pass for K, which involved finding an entirely different terminal, waiting in endless lines, and going through security yet again. We ended up missing our flight to Chicago by ten minutes. Luckily, we were able to catch another flight to Chicago only a couple of hours later and fly standby, and we were also put on a list to fly standby from Chicago back to Colorado. What really stunk, in addition to the extra waiting around and the uncertainty of getting a seat on the next two planes, was the fact that they would be charging me an additional $50 to fly standby, and it wasn't really my fault in the first place. But again, we soldiered through and arrived back in Colorado around 9:15 pm. After my aunt and uncle picked us up and brought us to my car which was parked at my grandmother's condo, we finally got back home by 11 pm on New Year's Eve, just in time for me to wish K a happy new year. It was an incredibly icy drive home due to the ice storm the previous day, but I drove as fast as I dared (which was veeeery slowly) and we got home safely. Mom thinks I should petition the airline for a refund of my $50, but I haven't decided yet. I started back to work on Monday, kids returned on Wednesday, and not surprisingly they are NOT happy to be back at school after Christmas break. Nope, not happy at all. But we survived the rest of the week, and now I get to spend what will hopefully be a lovely weekend with my best girl.
My Resolutions for 2011.
1. Build up an arsenal of babysitters that I can call as needed. And pay. Friends have offered to babysit and have stayed with K, but I'm finding that I almost prefer to pay someone because then I don't feel like I "owe" that person for doing me a favor.
2. Find other choice moms in my area and form a group. Or join an already-existing group. K needs to meet other little ones with similarly unique family stories, and I need to be able to compare notes on the "daddy issue" when it eventually comes up. I'm just trying to figure out how to put it into words once K is old enough to start to understand it.
3. Lose 30 pounds.
4. Build up my savings. For emergencies, and also to possibly prepare for #2 next fall.
5. Find a way to become more self-confident in terms of my appearance and my "new" identity as a mom. Not sure how to achieve this one, but I definitely plan to work on it somehow. More to come on this later.
That's it, for a start. I know there are more, but those are the biggies so far. I feel that it goes without saying that I want to be the best mom I can be to K, and to help her grow, learn, and thrive. She's doing so well so far...I love the fact that she seems to feel secure in our relationship and family structure. She is SUCH a happy kid! She is constantly smiling at me with her toothy grin (two teeth so far!) and laughing when we're goofy together, giggling when I tickle her under her chin, and so playful with her toys and with me. I love the way she plays with my fingers, especially when she's enjoying her before-bed bottle, and she's so inquisitive, almost to a fault. Once she becomes mobile, I think I'm in for it. She's busy scooting 360 degrees, and she can pretty much get where she wants to go, though crawling will be that much more efficient once she figures it out. She's got amazing fine motor skills, and I'm not surprised that her gross motor skills are developing more slowly, considering that it took her a little longer than most to sit independently. But she'll get it eventually. She loves to stand with a little help, she loves to bounce, and she just started trying to pull up on furniture (and people) at the end of December. I am completely in love with her personality, especially her emerging sense of humor and the way she babbles and holds cooing conversations with me. My favorite by far, though, is "mamamamama"...music to my ears.
We were in New York at my parents' house when the above picture was taken, and she looks like such the sad little inmate! So resigned to her fate stuck in the crib! That crib was used for all three of us kids, and has held up remarkably well over the years.
The highchair in the above picture has an interesting history, as well: the three of us kids AND before us, my mom and her two younger sisters used it, too! Mom was born in '41, so it really dates back. Mom painted it in the early '70's (can'tcha tell from the colors?!), and it's really stood the test of time.
"Yay! Ribbons!!"
"What's in there? I see something!!"
What, you didn't get what you asked for from Santa? :)
Sunday, December 5, 2010
can't wrap my head around it
Why do these things have to happen?? Paige, I am so sorry for your loss. It's just not fair, which is such an understatement.
My heart is breaking for her.
Please keep Paige in your thoughts and prayers...I wish I could hug her in person. :(
My heart is breaking for her.
Please keep Paige in your thoughts and prayers...I wish I could hug her in person. :(
Monday, November 15, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
heart = broken
I can hardly type the words. Mo and Will just lost their sixth pregnancy, and we all were SO hopeful that this one would be the one, especially after doing their microarray right here in Denver. It doesn't even feel real. Please keep them in your prayers. :(
Monday, November 8, 2010
My daughter has way too many...
SWEATERS. Seriously. How many sweaters does an 8-month-old really need?! Yes, I know winter is coming. And we live in Colorado. There are a few sweaters that she doesn't fit into yet. But this is a bit ridiculous.
Damn you, eBay. Damn you to hell.
Where is that 12-step program I keep looking for??!!
PS -- Okay, so I had to go and count them. She has seven that I have bought her, and three more that were either hand-me-downs or knitted for her. But seriously! Seven! No eight-month-old needs a sweater for every day of the week. I think I need professional help.
Damn you, eBay. Damn you to hell.
Where is that 12-step program I keep looking for??!!
PS -- Okay, so I had to go and count them. She has seven that I have bought her, and three more that were either hand-me-downs or knitted for her. But seriously! Seven! No eight-month-old needs a sweater for every day of the week. I think I need professional help.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
The. Big. Update.
Jeez! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted!! I'm just about to go pick up K from daycare, and I was thinking I'd take some eight-month pictures this afternoon before it gets too dark. So I'll post 'em soon.
Here's the lowdown of what we've been up to over the past month:
Here's the lowdown of what we've been up to over the past month:
- We moved!! I started packing and all that joyfulness about six weeks ago, when I found out I'd be able to move this fall instead of next summer, and it's been nothing but busy-ness ever since. I can finally say that I'm done moving, but definitely not done unpacking. Last night I got so sick of looking at the boxes strewn around the living room that I went into a total cleaning frenzy and unpacked a ton of stuff...but I do still have a small mountain of boxes next to the windows in the living room. I can't wait to go home tonight and survey the cleared space! It's satisfying. We now live in a very cool two-bedroom townhome (with an upstairs! Yay!) that has everything I was hoping to find except for a garage. Big rooms for both of us complete with vaulted ceilings and skylights, huge closets, fireplace that I can't wait to use this winter, cute (read: small) backyard with space to garden and plant grass in the spring, and the most beautiful renovated bathroom I've ever seen. Right out of a magazine. I never knew I'd be so excited about fixtures!! I'm so glad I'm all moved out of the old place. The mice can have it all to themselves. Yeah, I know. Mice. Horrible for an about-to-crawl baby. I did 95 percent of the moving all by myself, since the people who offered had things come up last-minute. I was disappointed for a while there, since I'm taking care of K on my own AND teaching middle school full-time AND trying to get us moved all the way across town. But I did it, and I'm really proud of myself.
- K turned eight months on Tuesday. I can hardly believe it! She's doing all sorts of new things, and I love every minute of it. It sure helps that she's in a new room at her daycare with kids who are a little older...lots of crawlers and walkers in there. Her latest thing is babbling nonstop, which is so entertaining to listen to and respond to, especially on the commute home in rush-hour traffic. She LOOOVES her bathtime, especially splashing and playing with her toys. She still loves to stand (supported) as often as possible, and now she's finally sitting by herself too. She cut her first tooth two Saturdays ago, and unfortunately it's all about the funky diapers now. Terrible diaper rash, which we're battling on a daily basis. Lots of frequent, irritating poops (sorry, TMI). I keep reading that this is all a part of teething, and friends have confirmed that too. But at least she loves having her teeth (tooth!) brushed...it probably feels good on her gums. She's a really happy kiddo on the whole...lots of smiling and laughing, even while she's teething. I actually have a parent conference tomorrow at her daycare, which will be interesting, I'm sure. I really like her caregivers, so I'm sure it'll go well. She's not crawling yet, but she is scooting, so I know it won't be long now. And she's a tall baby, just like her mama--she's in 9 to 12 month sizes mostly, only for the length in her legs, arms, and torso. She's a long drink of water! (I'm six feet tall, so no surprise there.)
- Things have just been incredibly busy lately. Now that the moving is done, I can focus on getting caught up with everything else, including getting everything unpacked and put away. We now live within walking distance of one of the many walking trails that crisscross my Colorado city, so I'm really looking forward to enjoying what's left of fall by going out with K in the stroller. I need the exercise!! I promise I'll do better in the future with updating this blog. :)
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